Wait wait wait....... don't jump me just yet, here me out. Remember his gang? One was called "Spook" Did you here the way he used to speak? Thats all im going to say.
shareI thought Spook had a light, jazzy voice....sorry, I didn't detect any Black dialect, if that's what you were referring to.
sharehang on - so if we agree Spook was black - how is having a black character racist? its not like the other cats beat him up or called him a ni88er, is it? Geez - thats like saying The Cosby Show was racist cos Bill Cosby has a black voice.
shareSo - Spook sounded black. In what way is that racist? He was voiced by a white man who also voices Brain, incedentally.
If anything could possibly be called racist about this show it's the implication that the feline race is smarter than the human one!
The Cosby show was racist..all the white characters,of which there were few,were portrayed as inferior...
shareNo, I think what he's trying to get at is that "Spook" is a derogatory name for a Black person and Jazz was associated with Blacks.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
hang on - so if we agree Spook was black - how is having a black character racist? its not like the other cats beat him up or called him a ni88er, is it? Geez - thats like saying The Cosby Show was racist cos Bill Cosby has a black voice.
Troll?
shareGoblin. Yes, folks, its the fantasy race name game!
shareLizard-man.
shareOne of the main problems we all have is we have let that racial thing go a little too far. If you all would open your bibles to the book of Genesis and look up the Tower of Babel you will see right there shows that all of us humans who live today decended from those people who were building that tower and what has happened is over the mininum of 3 to 4 thousand years of time that has past since then many people have forgotten that no matter what our skin color is or what language we speak everyone in this world is really far off distant cousins because everyone who is alive today decended from those who were building that tower. One thing I can say is on the Top Cat cartoons the only difference in race is humans and cats because there was Top Cat and his guys and then there was Dibble and his people. So what needs to be done to stop all this racial division in the world is everyone just needs to wake up and read that all who live today are decendants of the ones who built that tower that caused the different languages to be created as a result of disobeying GOD's command of spreading out around the world.
shareWhat??!?!?!
shareAmorrice80,
I just want you to know i am a decendant of three deceased preachers. When i first stumbled upon this message board and saw the topic of this message chain I carefully did studies in my bible and read a whole lot of other things some scientists have found out over the years. You see what i am saying in my previous message is look at this pattern-
When the Flood happened and the only humans that were alive were Noah, His wife, thier three sons and three daugther in laws every person spoke the same language and were the same skin color. Then by the time of the tower of Babel the people who were the Great-Great Grandsons and Grandaughters of Noah all tried to build that tower. By trying to build that tower and staying in one location of the world instead of spreading out like GOD had commanded it made GOD angry enough to where he created all the different languages that are spoken in the world today. SO you see the because of the different languages that were spoken it made the people split apart into the groups of their languages. Then also you look all those people still had the same skin color but from the time of that happening because of how some groups went up into Europe, Some down into africa, some in what is now the countries of China, Russia, Japan, North and South Korea, and from some who were able to walk the winter ice up from siberia to alaska went to the North and South American lands. So you see from the time they split apart into the different lands to the present day what has happened is those who stayed in the climates of the tropics got the dark black skin, The ones who went up north to the colder climates near the artic circle like in the northern most parts of present day Europe and Russia got the light colored white skin, then those who stayed in the areas between got the ligher color tan skin. Also because of how everyone was split apart then they developed the different religous beliefs. So right there with what i am saying is with that one event of history that is recorded in the first book of the bible exsplains that no matter what someone's skin color is, what someones religous beliefs are, or what language they speak everyone who is alive today has the same ancestors because we all decended from the eight people who survived the great flood.
People who make up groups like the KKK, and those middle east terroist groups that want to attack other people have all forgotten that no matter what you look like or what your religon is or what language you speak everyone who is alive today all decended from Noah's Three sons and three Daughter in laws.
This is a beautiful and simple cartoon about cats, that was put out for, and primarily enjoyed by kids. This string is inane.
sharemwmtampa,
Since you have seen my previous post what is the cause of all racisim problems it just shows that how back almost 50 years ago tv shows were made that were good like Top Cat but then as the years go by the younger generations of certain groups start taking things the wrong way and calling shows racist shows when they are not. That is just like the tv show from the 1950's called Amos and Andy because that was the first ever tv show that had Black men as the lead characters but the NAACP condemed the show because they misunderstood that it was trying to show that Black actors could do just as good as white actors in a comedy show. SO what has happened is over the years there have been several younger generations of both Blacks and Whites that have condemed the older shows that thier parents and Grandparents grew up with. One of the things that needs to be done is people need to open thier eyes to what I had listed in the previous message involving how if they look at those certain events of the bible they will see where all the racisim started from because of how people would not obey GOD's commands and he had to split them apart into the different language groups we now have got and then over the time of the last 4000 to 5000 years at least because of the different climates around the world is what developed the different skin colors. So all I am saying is these people who want to put racist charges against everything need to open thier eyes and read things like i have to find out the origins of the problems and take the hint that no matter the skin color, language spoken, or religous things everyone in this world is really far off cousins to eachother.
Well I agree in principle with your comments, but I don't want to get into those points but rather just simply discuss the beauty of Top Cat.
shareYou know one of my favorite Top Cat episodes is the one where they find that abandoned baby boy and are taking care of it. Then when Dibble shows up they show him the note they found with the baby and then Dibble gets into helping out instead of trying to be hard on them.
shareYes, I remember that episode, actually just saw it again on cable a few months ago. As you say, it was an unusual episode marking the event of Dibble supporting the Top Catters rather than harassing them.
shareYou know they have released the entire Top Cat show on DVD now and I have purchased the DVD because I have found out it is cheaper to buy the DVDs than to have to pay high price to a Sattelite tv provider in order to get the channel the show comes on. In order for me to have access to watching classic Hanna-Barbera shows like Top Cat and others besides Flinstones, Jetsons and Scooby Doo I would be having to pay 90 dollars a month for progam packages that I do not use 1/4th of the channels. That is one reason I am glad to see they are releasing these classic cartoons on DVD because i have found it is cheaper to pay around 30 dollars one time to get to see Top Cat and his guys any time i want to than to pay 90 dollars a month just to watch only a few of the episodes each month when they are showing shows like this one only on the weekends. I have to say if you would like to see All of Top Cat and some other Classic cartoons more often it is a better thing to purchase the DVDs from the online Wal-Mart store and have them shipped to a Wal-Mart store you can walk into with the paperwork and pick them up without having to pay shipping charges.
shareIf there was any racist undertones in this show(and just to let you know that I do watch the episodes carefully to see if there are any but in my opinion I haven't seen it yet)the NAACP was watching. Think about the time this cartoon came out in 1961,at the height of the civil rights movement.
**I do recall at the time TOP CAT was telecast,several southern stations(that were ABC affliates in the states of Alabama,Georgia,Mississippi,and Tennessee)refuse to air some of the episodes because of their racist undertones that mention black characters,and for an animated cartoon I'm like what in the hell were they're thinking??? It's a cartoon!!! With animals!!!
This has got to be a joke!!! Whoever started this chain must have got serious issues! It's a cartoon! Meant for kids! It's not racist! GROW UP!!!
shareWell fortunately I have discretionary cash, so I don't mind paying for the convenience and availability of cable programming. I have hundreds of channels so there is always something I can enjoy. I would like more of the older programs to be shown though, and I have seen those dollar DVD's on sale at Wal-Mart and the like. I have picked up a number of those older shows there, and appreciate that choice as well. You can't beat it for a buck.
shareNot exclusively for kids but I taker your point. I'm frankly baffled by the religious posts here.
shareAmorrice80 the reason i have posted those religous info messages is to point out to everyone the origins of the problems we have with racial profiles and such. Right there in those posts i put up exsplains the reasons we have such problems today is because hundreds of thousands of people in every major city around the world seem to forget that one thing that everyone who is alive today all decended from those who tried to build that tower that split everyone into the different language groups and as a result of where the groups went to is what resulted in the change that caused the different skin colors after several generations.
shareYou have WAY too much time on your hands. It's a cartoon. About cats. Scamming alley cats. How deep did you have to dig to find something objectionable? It sounds to me like you could find evil in anything.
shareCatey-49 I have done a whole lot of research over the years and I have found out things that it seems people like you must overlook involving world history and also how the behavior of some people is influenced by things they are exposed to when they are young. Old cartoons like Top Cat and others that were made from 1930 to 1993 minus those simpsons and that bevis and butt head where a whole lot better than what has been made in the last 16 years. The proof i have of that is the older shows have morality of teaching that good wins over evil and they teach the right ways to deal with things like saving violence as a last resort instead of what these new shows promote into children's minds. If the US FCC would have kept the same regulations involving what is shown on US television networks that they had back during the eight years Ronald Reagan was president we would not have these higher violent cartoons, video games and other things that children are being exposed to that could be what is causing us to have so many cases of children killing people at schools now.
shareI think you misunderstood my comment. I loved Top Cat when I was five.....I have absolutely no use for modern stuff like "Beavis and Butthead". I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, but even at five I knew you couldn't drop an anvil on somebody. Today's kids know it too....we make way too many excuses for them.
shareThe problem with today's children is everyone has gotten too afraid to stand up to the government who is dictating how people are to raise the kids. What has happened is people are too scared that they will be thrown in jail for punishing the children with things other than those time outs. It says in the Bible "Spare the Rod and you will spoil the child!" The only time i consider a spanking as abuse is if the child is struck anywhere other than the butt and is hit with anything other than the bare hand or a small ping pong paddle that is over 1/4 and inch thick. The reason I say this is because when i was 13 the pricipal of the school I was going to was an evil man because he would let a quartet of bullies pick on me and two other guys just because of our medical problems and one day when they falsely accused me of doing something, instead of letting me prove I was innocent that man takes a paddle that looks to be an inch thick 3 inches wide and a foot long not including the handle and strikes me 6 times in the back along the left side of my rib cage. When my dad saw that injuury and I told him what had happened he was furious. So you see men like that principal is why we have no means to discipline the children these days because of how us older generations in the last 50 years have been physically and mentally abused by people. But the Government made a mistake. They should of had all these abusive school teachers, Principals and other adults put in jail and replace with more kind hearted people instead of outlawing discipline all together. That is why we are seeing so many of these news reports now where kids are sneaking weapons onto the school grounds and killing the teachers is because tv shows like that Criminal Minds makes teens think that the justice system would just kill these bullying adults right on the spot instead of taking them into the court house for prosecution.
sharePS...."people like me"? How presumptuous of you.....you know nothing about me.
shareHe wasn't black. He was olivey green. And his voice didn't sound black or stereotypical either.
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This thread is breaking all the dinner party rules - discussing race and then religion; someone just needs to mention Obama and we've got the trio.
"Someone has been tampering with Hank's memories."
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Black fur would've been difficult to animate because of the overlaps, too.
share[deleted]
"Spook" was simply a cat version of the typical fictional media "beatnik" of the era. You see "real" actors playing such roles in many movies and tv shows of the late 50s and early 60s. The beatnik, "dug" "modern jazz", "modern" art, "beat" poetry like Ginsberg, and the "beat" novels of Kerouac(hence their name, which derived from this and the Soviet "Sputnik" satellite).
Beatniks were usually seen hanging round a smokey coffee house. The beatnik spoke in a "slanguage" derived from mainly "hep" black jazzmen, and columnists like Walter Winchell. He/she was usually portrayed as a white person.
Movie beatniks include Roddy McDowell in "the Subterraneans" (1960). On tv Edd "Kookie" Burns of "77 Sunset Strip" (1958-63) used beatnik talk all the time; George Maharis as "Buz Murdock" on "Route 66" (1960-64) was a semi beatnik, at least he often talked like one. Bob Denver's "Maynard Krebs" was a beatnik type on "The many loves of Dobie Gillis" (1959-63). All these actors were white.
When hippies came along in the late 60s, the beatnik became an outdated concept, though a lot of the "hey man.." type cliches associated with hippies were beatnik slang originally
"Spook" the cat was certainly not an example of racism-Spook is just the sort of name such a "beatnik" character would be given. And his voice could have been that of a white or black person(it was provided by a white actor). However, as we are talking about cartoon cats, not even cartoon people, race shouldn't really enter into it anyway!
BULL Crap! "Spook" is a racist term for a Black person. Period. The issue if race in cartoons is not the issue. What is at issue is whether the creators of the cartoon has a racist intent. Why not call the cat "Beatnick" or "Boots" os some other name. The term Spook is not as widely used as it once was but it certainly was still in good use in the late 50' and early 60's. It was a recist term. The writers/creators had to know that. Don't ignore that.
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Bull crap yourself! You said, "Spook is a racist term for a Black person. Period."
False! Spook also is, and was then, slang for either a ghost, or a spy. Is it your own reverse racism that makes you automatically assume the racist intent? Either that, or you need to buy a good dictionary. If they ever start an olympic event for conclusion-jumping, you should be captain of the team.
Indeed there is a popular UK tv series about the intelligence services called "Spooks", which has nothing to do with insulting black people, any more than the "Top Cat" writers were trying to. A spook is a common term for a phantom. Used about a living person, it can be used to indicate one who is found in dark places-the spy world, smoky beatnik coffee houses, and such. Spook the cat is a "hipster", a cat version of a "beatnik". A name like "Spook" is ideal for him, without there being any "racist" overtones whatever.
shareYou make it sound like that's the ONLY use of that term. Don't be so damned obtuse. We're talking about a name that was given to a CAT, not to an African American human. And in addition, the point also being made here is that, contrary to the what the OP asserted, the cat's personality was intended to be a stereotypical representation of a 1950s beatnik (who came in all races, but were mostly white if anything), NOT of a black person. Which therefore negates any connection that can be made between the character's given name and anything to do with race.
You're just seeing what you want to see, jackoff. Stop race-baiting.
What about Hitler??
share[deleted]
*breaks a rib laughing at you calling ANYONE ignorant*
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do." - Benjamin Franklin.
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I can not believe that this conversation is even happening Top Cat is a animated cartoon from the early sixties, do you honestly think that the creators H-B had racist intent here... did they have racist intent in the other 50 shows they have produced if there so racist. This is a great show stop demeaning it with your *beep*
shareA lot of cartoon shows did back then actually. There is something called the "Censored Eleven", as explained on this Wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Censored_Eleven
It doesn't have any Hanna-Barbera related stuff, but I felt it was relevant to the topic.
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One of the censored cartoons is a masterpiece depriving the children of multiple generations the delight of seeing it...Dunno about the others? (Not named cartoon on purpose)
share